


treason

by mirberries



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-29
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-01-27 00:08:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 42
Words: 6,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1707602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirberries/pseuds/mirberries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a series of treasonshipping one shots, collected. ranges from 3-5 sentence drabbles to longer one-shots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> trigger warnings for: asphyxiation, abuse.

Yusei’s skin felt so smooth underneath Kiryu’s fingertips when he ran them over the curve of his shoulder and the line of his jaw. He was warm and soft and so very alive, with that fluttering pulse and his gasps of breath that punctuated his whispered name. 

It was even nicer with his hands grasped around his throat in a vice grip, draining the breath from his lungs and the life from his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt given: "kiryu is crossdressing, and yusei accidentally likes it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no trigger warnings.

Even though, technically, the clothes that Kiryu had put on in the summer heat were meant for girls (at least, he thought they were, he’d never seen anyone but a girl wearing a pleated skirt like that), Yusei thought that, on him, they were fitting. He looked like someone energetic and adventurous, not to mention, it was a wise choice in the record summer heat, without the confining fabric of the jeans that he usually wore. Secretly, he hoped that he wore it to bed, too, so that when they shared their mattress later, he could quietly tell him how much the skirt suited him and his long legs.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt given: "yusei calms kiryu down after a claustrophobic fit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no trigger warnings.

It took lungfuls of cold December air hitting his lungs for Kiryu to acknowledge that he wasn’t inside anymore, and that nothing was trapping him from the outside world. The walls that had so painfully confined and constricted him, robbing him of freedom and of air and the chance for escape had vanished, and all that remained was Yusei’s hands on his own, warm and steady while he was sure that his were trembling still. 

"You’re all right, Kiryu." Yusei breathed a sigh of relief when Kiryu had stopped his violent fit, though he was sure that he had a bruise now from banging into the doorknob on the way out. "See? You can see the stars."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt given: "the first time kiryu sees snow." companion to previous fill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no trigger warnings.

But Kiryu could see more than the stars. 

On the rooftop, with Yusei’s hands clutching tightly onto his in a warm, trusting grasp, Kiryu saw snow drifting down from above—real snow, not the ash that sometimes fell out of the waste-burning places around Satellite. Somehow, it had drifted in from the ocean and reached Satellite first, and now it was snowing for just the two of them, for the first time in either of their lives. 

"Yusei, it’s like stardust," he marveled aloud at the tumbling white flakes. 

"It’s like stardust, so it must be for you."


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt given: "wishing on stars."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no trigger warnings.

"Hey, Yusei, how many stars do you think are in the night sky?" Kiryu asked one night, resting his head against Yusei’s stomach while he fiddled with the lenses for a telescope that he’d found poking out of a trash pile. 

"Billions," he replied busily, pausing every so often to run his hand through Kiryu’s hair. "Why do you ask?" 

"Because that’s a billion wishes that I don’t have to make, since I’ve already got you." he replied with a smirk, which earned him a shake of Yusei’s head and a heartwarming smile.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt given: "they are both dark signers."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no trigger warnings.

"This isn’t what I wanted!"  

Kiryu shrieked with rage, flipping over the table in what Misty mocked as a ‘childish display,’ but he ignored her as he always did. His eyes were locked onto Yusei, with Rudger’s hand on his shoulder, and those blue eyes locked onto the floor and avoiding Kiryu’s own gaze.  

"I didn’t want you to be alone anymore, Kiryu," Yusei mumbled his explanation, and as usual, Kiryu felt his heart twist and snap in two, in only the way Yusei could make happen. Unable to stop himself, he stepped over and held Yusei tight to his chest, protectively keeping him away from Rudger so that he could whisper against the head of black hair, 

"But  _I_ wanted to be the one to watch you scream as you died.” 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt given: "they cuddle and talk about their dreams."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no trigger warnings.

"If we get out of Satellite, I think I’ll try to become a scientist… What do you think you’re going to do, Kiryu?" 

Kiryu quirked a brow at Yusei. He hadn’t exactly asked Yusei what he’d wanted to do with his life, but he guessed that it seemed to suit him; Yusei always was good at figuring out what to do with things, and scientists had to think that way. 

Instead of giving him a straight answer, Kiryu wrapped an arm around Yusei’s shoulders and tugged him closer against his chest. 

"I’m gonna be the sheriff of some old western town like in those movies you fixed up, and maybe I’ll play the harmonica and be all dramatic with tumbleweeds and stuff."

"Pft, get real, Kiryu."


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt given: " yuusei stops kiryu from trying to kill someone in satellite who hurt yuusei."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: blood

The skin of his knuckles had cracked long ago from the brutal punches he’d delivered to the other man, pounding into his face and his stomach over and over like he was playing the beat to the bastard’s funeral march. He only had one reason for hurting the fucker, and that one reason was all he needed in the world:

_You hurt him._

It was Yusei, though, who pulled Kiryu off of his victim before he could end the man’s life, and it was Yusei who bandaged his bloody hands. It was Yusei who held Kiryu’s face in his hands and kissed him gently and told him "Thank you, Kiryu, I’m okay now." 

It was Yusei who always understood. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yuusei trying to deal with kiryu's promiscuous tendencies.

Though he wasn’t eager to admit to it, Yusei Fudo found himself feeling incredibly jealous of the way Kiryu had been acting. The promiscuity was something that ran deep with him, all the way back into their Team Satisfaction days, but now that they were older, it had yet to go away, and so Yusei felt like he had to take manners into his own hands. 

It was well worth the look of surprise on Kiryu’s face when he found Yusei waiting for him in his house, and the noise he made when he was forced into a kiss was a nice bonus. 

"If you want someone to sleep with, you have me," He hissed against Kiryu’s lips. Yusei’s display of possessiveness only served to incite Kiryu’s arousal, however—and instead of solving one problem, Yusei ended up creating an entirely new one.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yusei compliments kiryu but uses a word kiryu doesn't know and kiryu thinks he just insulted him and gets upset.

"What the hell’d you call me?!" 

Yusei had no idea how it had escalated to this level. The two of them had been sitting on the couch, perfectly comfortable while the light of the evening sun had been coming in and making the light, glossy strands of Kiryu’s hair sparkle. He’d called it ‘scintillating,’ and apparently that hadn’t been in Kiryu’s vocabulary. 

"I just said that your hair’s shiny, Kiryu, please calm down!"


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> nico and west keep inviting yuusei to crash town behind kiryu's back. he doesn't actually mind.

"Back so soon?" 

Kiryu quirked a curious brow in Yusei’s direction after seeing him with West in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other. Usually, Yusei didn’t take so many trips to Satisfaction Town, but he’d been coming with an increasing frequency, usually with either West or Nico in tow. 

"You didn’t know I was comin-… ah," Yusei glanced at West, who stared up at him innocently, licking on his own ice cream cone with a spark in his eye. 

"Tell me more stories about you and Kiryu-niichan… I want to hear them all!"


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yuusei cuts kiryu's hair.

The sound of scissors slicing through hair was almost calming in its familiarity for the silver-haired man. He sat perfectly still in the afternoon light, a sheet draped around his bare chest as he let Yusei neatly cut his hair back to the length it used to be, before he let it get out of control. It was something only Yusei was ever allowed to do, to be near him with any kind of blade, and that would never, ever change. 

"Now you’re handsome again," Yusei smirked when it came time to take the sheet out, pressing a kiss against Kiryu’s marked cheek.

"Wait, I wasn’t handsome before?"


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yuusei finds out kiryu's been hurting himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: self harm.

He didn’t yell or scream, or even ask why—all of those things, Yusei thought, were pointless to do when he knew the answers and reactions he’d get from Kiryu. So instead, he cleaned out the cuts and bandaged his wrists and arms quietly, pausing only to take Kiryu’s trembling hands in his own and press kisses against the palms. 

"I want to take the pain away from you." He told him, his tone sympathetic and quiet, and it was honest enough that Kiryu couldn’t take it. He crushed himself against Yusei’s chest and stayed there, letting the younger man hold onto him while his shirt muffled the sounds of his sobs.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> going for a swim. they don't have swimming suits.

It had been by pure stroke of luck that Kiryu’s visit to Neo Domino City had coincided with Yusei being asked to house sit for Lua and Luca’s family while they had been away— and Kiryu had immediately found the pool without any trouble. 

"We don’t have swimsuits," Yusei tried to argue, not wanting to get in trouble for bringing someone unknown over to their house, much less into the lovely swimming pool. This didn’t stop Kiryu, who kept undressing and dove straight in without a stitch of clothing to cover himself.

"What’s the matter, Yusei, afraid that you might have fun?" Kiryu teased, and when he saw the jacket and shirt come off, Kiryu knew that not only would they be having fun, but plenty of it.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in the early days of team satisfaction, when yuusei is still trying to figure kiryu out.

Kyosuke Kiryu was definitely pretty, that much was true. He had a quick tongue and a sharp wit and a strong determination; all of the best qualities that the rest of them had individually, rolled up into one older, more experienced person. Still, there seemed something really off about him, so he decided to bring up his theory one day when Jack and Crow were out learning the set patrol routes that they’d established. 

"You’re lonely, aren’t you?" Yusei asked. He knew that his theory had been quickly proven correct when Kiryu glanced towards the floor, so he reached out and grasped onto his hand, which was warmer and larger, and said, 

"You won’t be from now on."


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Satisfaction days. Yusei admiring from afar, but not knowing admiration could be something more.

His duels were always exciting to watch, and there was always something new for Yusei to learn from watching them. Here, a new technique, there, a new way to fuse two monsters into something stronger than before. 

He learned that Kiryu’s eyes sparkled like gold when he was close to victory, and that the corners of those eyes crinkled up when he smiled at them to reassure them when it looked like he was losing. 

Their savior, Yusei thought, really was an exciting guy. Why else would he always be left with butterflies in his stomach when he watched him?


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hunger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warnings: starvation, death.

Kiryu was so hungry that he was beginning to hallucinate that Yusei was there with him. Warm hands cupped his sallow, sunken cheeks, bringing warmth back into the skin that he knew would soon be cold and pale with death. He felt his warm kiss, and heard the soothing whispers that lulled him into sleep, and the sweet release that would come with it. 

"Yusei, I’m so tired," he murmured, reaching up to stroke the cheek of what wasn’t there, and swearing that he felt the warmth in his fingertips.

"Then sleep, Kiryu," he swore he heard him say in reply, and so he did, for what he thought was the final time.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yuusei answers a call from kiryu in the middle of sex. unrequited kingcrab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mature content warning.

It isn’t when he insists upon answering the call in the middle of being given a blow job (‘Hold on, Jack, it’ll only take a minute,’ he insists,) that does it. It isn’t when he hears the laughter from two rooms away, two hours later that does it, either. It’s later on, when Jack goes to see why things have gotten quiet, and he finds that Yuusei fell asleep with the phone still going, and a real, loving smile on his face. He tucks him in, and goes downstairs to sleep on the couch instead of sharing, and his heart feels like it’s sunk down into his stomach. That is when Jack realizes that so long as Kiryu’s alive and well, even miles and miles away, that in Yuusei’s heart, he will absolutely never be King.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jack agrees to teach yusei how to dance knowing who he wants to learn for. unrequited kingcrab.

"Thank you for teaching me, Jack," Yusei commented, letting Jack lead him in the waltz that they’d been practicing for hours now. Yusei was finally getting the hang of it, and it disappointed Jack a little, knowing that each success in the steps meant they were a little closer to their lessons ending. 

"Mm," he acknowledged in reply, turning Yusei under his arm. "I don’t know why you insisted on a waltz, but—"

"Because Kiryu said he always wanted to waltz on his wedding day, and I want to give that to him." Yusei replied without missing a beat, and Jack could only say ‘ah,’ completing the spin as the song came to its end.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kiryu carrying yuusei home in satellite when he gets hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: blood

"No, no, no, no," Kiryu murmured the mantra under his breath, racing so hard throughout the streets of Satellite that his legs ached and his heart pounded against his ribcage. Blood from Yusei’s stomach was staining his arms red, and already, he looked pale and weak and tired, though every time he started to doze, Kiryu would screech and snap him back into forced consciousness. 

He wasn’t supposed to get hurt this badly! Security wasn’t supposed to be behind that door! All of these things and more screamed through his head as he ran for Martha’s place, clutching Yusei close to his chest and trying so hard to keep running faster, so that he didn’t have to die in that disgusting hell.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kiryu can't bring himself to visit yusei in the hospital, he hates hospitals that much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warnings: hospitals, blood.

He was going to be okay, the doctor had said, and he was eager to see Kiryu now that he’d woken up. Knowing that should have been a relief for the older teen, who had washed his arms so many times that his skin had become red, but he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t go see Yusei, no matter how much he knew Yusei wanted him, and was waiting for him. 

"I’m sorry," he muttered over and over again, closing his eyes tight and curling in on himself in the empty room, wanting to both save Yusei from his sterile, white-walled hell, and for Yusei to come and rescue him from the one from his own warped memories.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sleep deprivation.

"You need to sleep, Kiryu…" 

Yusei wound his fingers through Kiryu’s hair while he laid in his lap, combing apart the long strands and watching the packed-in dust and dirt slowly drift off of the poorly maintained locks in little clouds. For so long, now, he had been working himself sick, tirelessly running around in the desert sands and running ragged, like he was trying to escape from something. 

"I can’t, Yusei—every time I close my eyes, I see Ccapac Apu, and—"

And Yusei didn’t need to hear any more; he knew the horrors that the giant dragged along in its mighty hands, and he knew that no one could bear that agonizing weight, especially not someone who was so frail to begin with.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> double-date with kiryu sizing up kazama to make sure he's good for jack. justiceshipping.

Kiryu hated Kazama from the moment that he saw him, and he made sure that he knew it, with dark glares and harsh words. For Jack to date a cop was an ultimate betrayal and he knew it, and to even suggest a double date—well, it was a good thing that he’d asked Yusei instead, because it would be the only way he could get a solid yes. 

Still, it was hard to be angry when he saw that Kazama drew out something precious: Jack’s real smile, just as rare and warm and pretty as Yusei’s own. It was a smile that he’d never seen on Jack’s face, ever, but it had the same feeling as the one Yusei gave him, so… 

"Let me buy you another beer, Kazama," Kiryu offered, and that was how Yusei and Jack both knew that he was as close to approving as he ever would be.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kiryu's first impression of yusei.

He was a scrawny, annoying little shit, always sticking around Jack’s shadow and hardly ever speaking his mind. Yusei was annoying as all hell, always trying to keep everything safe and holding them back when a little risk could actually accomplish more. 

Still, when push came to shove, he took his orders well, and, more importantly, he was creative in his solutions to different problems. Plus, he was pretty to look at, with those eyes of his that always sparkled when he talked about his friends. 

Now all that was left was to see how well he could fuck.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> table sex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mature content warning.

The table that held their map was surprisingly sturdy.

Kiryu found this out while he fucked Yusei over it, pounding into the younger duelist eagerly while he moaned into the headband-turned-gag that filled his mouth. Yusei held onto the edge of the table for dear life while Kiryu wrapped his fingers around his erection, grasping and stroking at it in tandem with his thrusts so that he could make him come harder and faster. 

Yusei’s cries were muffled by Kiryu’s headband in his mouth, but there was no mistaking the look on his face that preceded his climax, so Kiryu knew just a second or so before the tabletop was covered with semen, which brought Kiryu to release his own. 

"I thought it would’ve broken," Kiryu mused aloud between panted breaths, and Yusei swatted at him to make him shut up about the damned thing; it wouldn’t have broken, after all, not when he’d been the one to build it to begin with.


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> watching yusei as a dark signer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warnings: blood, death.

Yusei was so beautiful when he was in pain. Curled in upon himself, bleeding from his shrapnel-pierced stomach in the violent purple light that Ccapac Apu had burned into the earth, he was stunning, but it still wasn’t enough to satisfy him. No, Kiryu needed to wring that life from him with his own two hands, to tear his soul from his body in duel, so that he alone had the pleasure of revenge over his former lover. 

Soon, he would have the delicious privilege of seeing the light fade from those bright blue eyes, and hearing his last words fall from pale, quivering lips. That thought alone was enough to satiate his lust for now, and to leave him alive until the next round of their dangerous game.


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack finding out that Yusei's in love with Kiryu. unrequited kingcrabshipping.

"I think that I really love Kiryu, Jack." 

It isn’t a surprise when Yusei says it, in the warm breeze of a late August evening, when it’s just the two of them on a shared patrol. Jack knew that it was coming for a long time, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less to anticipate the blow. 

"So then tell him, not me," he says, and leaves it at that. There’s no point in wasting his own breath on useless confession now when the words won’t reach his target’s heart, so he keeps walking ahead with his head held high, leaving Yusei to trail after him.


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kiryu forces yusei to get rid of bruno's glasses.

"So, then, don’t you think you should get rid of those?"

Yusei turned his head to follow Kiryu’s gaze over to where the broken glasses lay, propped up beside one of a series of photographs that were taken, depicting much happier times, when things were more carefree. He hadn’t been able to get rid of them, not yet. They were still too important.

"Kiryu, I can’t just get rid of them. They were important. They—"

"What’s more important, Yusei? The thing or the memories it carried? You’re only holding onto this junk because you think that somehow, you can fix it and it’ll mean something. I know you. But this is something you can’t fix." Kiryu reminded him harshly. Though his words were cruel, they did make sense. What was more important? The object, or the happy memories that he recalled when he looked at it? Those memories weren’t going to go anywhere. 

Though it pained him to do it, Yusei tugged his hand away from Kiryu’s and threw the broken glasses away, taking care not to cut his finger open on the jagged edges.


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> graffiti.

Every other group that laid claim to the streets of Satellite had a tag, a marker, something that defined them as a group that wasn’t to be messed with—so why, Kiryu wondered, didn’t Team Satisfaction? 

"It needs to be something simple—something we can lay down quick, that Jack and Crow can replicate. But it has to be unique, too!" He mused aloud to Yusei, who’d been given the task of coming up with their signature image. He was a good technical artist, so why couldn’t he do this much, too? 

"Something like this?" Yusei asked, turning the sketchbook around to show Kiryu what he’d come up with. Immediately, he knew that he’d hit the nail on the head; Kiryu’s eyes lit up and he grabbed Yusei up out of the rickety chair to pull him into a crushing kiss. 

"Yusei, you’re a genius! Starting tomorrow, we’ll mark all of our territories just like this!" He laughed, spinning him around the room, dancing with him to a song that only he could hear.


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> nail polish.

"Pink isn’t really your color."

Kiryu slammed his hands abruptly against the tabletop that he’d been working on, nearly upsetting his water glass. He’d been waiting for Yusei to say something, to notice the layer of pink varnish on his fingernails, and part of him had even dared to hope that he’d be so oblivious as to not notice it completely. However, he had no such luck; not today.

"I’ll have you know, as Nico told me," Kiryu grumbled, his hair getting into his face as his shoulders hunched up, "That this isn’t just _pink_ , it’s _fuschia_."

"Fuschia. Right. It looks pink," Yusei commented with a sly smirk, the corners of his lips curling upward around the edge of his milk glass. Kiryu smirked right back at him, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"You’re laughing now, Yusei, but just you wait—she saved aquamarine for you."


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yusei can't flirt to save his life.

"What the hell was that supposed to be?" 

Yusei shot Kiryu a dark look, his cheeks flushed with embarrassed color. His attempts at flirting had been absolutely pitiful, and he knew it—but he’d been  _dared_ , and he wasn’t going to just back out on a dare, not when the alternative was to be Jack’s servant for a week. 

"I was-"

"Oh, I know what it was. It just wasn’t very  _good_.” Kiryu laughed at the younger teen. He knew that his pride had to be wounded by the laughter, from the way Yusei’s shoulders hunched up, and he looked away. 

"Oh, don’t be that way." He purred, leaning down onto one knee in front of Yusei and cupping his cheek in his hand, running his thumb over his lips. They were a little dry and cracked from the cold air, but he didn’t care or complain, simply bending his head down to give Yusei a kiss. 

"You make up for it in kissing, after all."


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> phone sex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mature content warning.

"I can’t wait to see you again, Yusei," Kiryu’s voice was a low purr in his ear, and even over the phone, it had the desired effect. Yusei ran his thumb over the head of his own erection, trying to emulate what Kiryu had done when he’d visited him last, when he had been sitting in his lap in the Satisfaction Town sheriff’s office. He panted into the mouthpiece of the phone, knowing that Kiryu wanted to hear every noise that he made; he’d told him as much, anyhow.

"I’m going to pin you up against your D-Wheel and I’m going to ram into you so fucking hard that you can’t stand. You’ll be scratching off that pretty red paint and screaming my name into the leather on the seat…"

"Kiryu," Yusei whined into the mouthpiece, his breathing heavy. His fingers were curled around the base of his cock, and he moved his palm over himself, squeezing at different intervals to try and see what felt best, though it wasn’t anything like Kiryu’s own hands that always seemed to know what to do. 

"Come here. Come here— _now_. I need you.” The Signer moaned.

The phone clicked in response, and Yusei knew that an incredibly exciting night was on the way. 


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> making a bento for yusei.

Kiryu Kyosuke was a man of many secrets, the chief among them being his ability to make an adorable bento. He laid it out neatly for Yusei, in an arrangement where the onigiri was shaped like a crab, the tomato skillfully cut to look like Yusei-Go, and a hot dog that had been cut to look like Crow’s hair, with a tiny nori headband. 

Everything was perfectly laid out, down to the very last grain of rice, and Kiryu was proud! Still, he acted completely nonchalant when he handed it off to Yusei, like the contents of the sealed bento were commonplace and uncreative.

He knew, however, that no matter how it looked, he’d eat everything there gratefully and call it all delicious when he saw him again.


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> typhoon.

"You’re absolutely drenched, you know that?" 

Despite the deadpan sort of look that Yusei shot at him, Kiryu wasted no time in grabbing the younger duelist up and peeling the rain-soaked clothing off of him so that it could be laid out. It wouldn’t dry very easily, not in today’s hide-out; the two of them had taken shelter in an old high school, in the upper levels where the inevitable flood of muddy water wouldn’t reach. The basement level, Kiryu had already discovered, was waist-deep with water, but there wasn’t anything useful down there that hadn’t already been picked at years ago by scavengers. 

At least, he’d managed to find a classroom with most of the windows intact, and all four walls and ceiling still standing strong. This way, they’d be sheltered from the typhoon’s worst, so long as they kept the boards that he’d found secured up over the windows. 

"This place isn’t really ideal." Yusei commented, sitting casually at one of the desks like he wasn’t in his boxers alone, like he belonged there. He did, in a way; Yusei ought to have been in a classroom right then. All of them should have been in classrooms and schools, not in this hellish dump. 

"Where are Jack and Crow?" he asked Kiryu, who shrugged, and leaned up against what must have been the teachers’ podium. He could imagine teachers writing on the blackboard in chalk, with uniformed students all lined up in desks, staring leisurely out of the windows while waiting for the bell to ring—it was a completely different image from two teenage boys taking shelter from the relentless rainwater. 

"Who knows? Anyhow, this typhoon’s gonna barely be anything. It’s already pretty much just a tropical depression. Just rain and wind. So… instead of worrying about it, wanna do something fun?" Kiryu smirked, walking over and stroking Yusei’s cheek. He drew his fingers down his jawline and up underneath his chin, tilting it upward so that he could see Yusei’s dark blue eyes even in the dim light of the room. 

"Depends on what you mean by fun." He shuddered. Kiryu laughed, and leaned forward, so that his breath ghosted over Yusei’s lips. 

"How about a little student-teacher play to pass the time? You can call me sensei."

Whatever Yusei’s reply may have been was drowned out by a chorus of thunder and wind.


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kiryu saves yusei this time.

"Are you going to blame yourself forever?" 

Yusei wiped his eyes on the back of his hand and stared up at the briefly unfamiliar silhouette that towered over him, blocking his view of the sun. The long coat and hair confused him briefly—he still wasn’t used to Kiryu’s appearance, even after spending time with him in Crash Town—but the grip on his arm that tugged him upward did the trick. That grip couldn’t belong to anyone else.

"Kiryu, I—" He tried to choke out any number of reasons that he keep carrying the weight of Bruno’s death, but they were all cut off with a sharply delivered kiss and a tightening of cold hands on his wrists. 

"You wouldn’t let me waste away in my own grief," Kiryu reminded him, golden eyes staring down and demanding Yusei’s full attention. "So what makes you think I’ll let you do the same?" 

"I— nothing, Kiryu."


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kiryu loses his harmonica.

"I can’t believe you lost your harmonica." Yusei mumbled under his breath for probably the hundredth time since he’d arrived in Satisfaction Town. Kiryu’s entire small home had been turned upside down in pursuit of the thing, and Yusei was getting ready to go for turn number one-hundred-and-one just so that he could find the little silver instrument and put it to rest. 

He preferred the harmonica to the other little silver instruments Kiryu used to use to relieve stress, anyhow. If he had to, he’d buy him a brand new harmonica, just to keep him from cutting himself or trying something equally self destructive.

"You know, until I find it…" Kiryu hummed, fully aware that the harmonica was right in his pocket the entire time, and that the frantic searches had been purely a set-up for this one line, "I’m going to need something else to blow."

The room fell entirely silent and still for several long seconds, until Yusei flung a throw pillow straight at Kiryu’s face.


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kiryu is tricked by the prison guards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: abuse

"You’ve got a visitor. Some spiky-haired brat." 

If he had the energy to complete the motion, Kiryu’s head would have shot up when he heard the guard come around and unlock his door, delivering the hopeful message. A visitor, with spiky hair—it could only be a handful of people, and two of them wouldn’t see him anyhow, so that left only one possibility.

 _Yusei._  It had to be Yusei. It had to be him, coming back to apologize, to admit that he was wrong, to beg for forgiveness (which he’d grant, and it would all be okay). He’d tell him he loved him and Yusei would say that he loved him too, and they’d work towards getting him out and getting away from the City, just the two of them, because Jack and Crow didn’t need them. They could hide somewhere, anywhere, and—

It became increasingly evident as time went on, sitting at the plexiglas partition that separated inmates from visitors, that there was no one coming. There never was anyone coming. 

He could hear the laughter of the guards echoing through the halls as one yanked him up by a handful of his hair and dragged him back to his solitary cell, flinging him harshly against the wall so that the painted concrete scraped his back.

"The only visitors you’ll get are in Hell!" They guffawed, slamming his metal door behind him.

In Hell. That didn’t sound so bad anymore—the warmth of the fires, fueled by his rage.

_Yusei. I’ll see you soon. Wait for me in Hell._


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> memory loss.

"I’m not just going to let you die!" 

The setting evening sun gleamed bright in Yusei’s eyes as he stared Kiryu down, face-to-face, for the first time since he’d been resurrected as a Dark Signer. His heart beat a rapid staccato in his chest and, as the man he loved stared down at him with cold, nearly lifeless eyes, he stared right back into them, trying to will him back into living. 

"That’s noble of you," Kiryu sighed, bringing the mouth organ up to his lips again and playing a long and lonely C with an exhaled breath. “Really, it is. But I have one question.”

Yusei thought he knew the question before he was going to ask it. ‘Why are you doing this?’ That’d be it, and he had his answer on the tip of his tongue, sparked hot and ready to be thrown out with his entire soul behind it.

"Who are you, anyhow?" 

The fire inside of Yusei’s heart died down in an instant, and his resolve to succeed went with it.


	39. Chapter 39

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> breakfast in the middle of the night.

In the heat of summer in Satisfaction Town, often, the power would cease to function, leaving the entire city silent without the hum of the little electronics that they had. It was a pain to deal with, especially since fans or air conditioners couldn’t run, but for Kiryu, it was an even bigger mess, since now, he had a bunch of breakfast foods—gifts from Yusei, brought in a cooler—that he had to cook up all at once before the meats went bad. 

"This isn’t very satisfying," Kiryu scowled, flipping the sausage over in the one of the pans that sat on the grill in the dark of night. Its gas flame flickered happily underneath it, scorching the cast iron bottom so that it would brown the meat inside nicely. Beside it sat another with slices of bacon, and soon, a dozen eggs would be scrambled beside it all with cheese and milk, mostly because he knew no other way took them.

"I’m not complaining." Yusei watched him, amused by how easily he was able to handle the different pans over the flames. How he’d gotten a gas grill, he didn’t know (he assumed Ramon had something to do with it), but it meant that their breakfast wouldn’t go wasted.

"This was supposed to last us your whole visit! Now we have to eat it all at once, like animals!" He whined, grabbing a bunch of mushrooms that he’d made Yusei chop up so that he could saute those to add to his own eggs. It was a taste that he had acquired from Nico, and after a lifetime of canned and dehydrated goods, he found fresh vegetables to be worth the expense. 

"Like a feast." Yusei corrected. “Remember all of the nights that we talked about this very thing in Satellite? Just making all of our favorites all at once and eating them until we got sick of them?”

"… Yeah. I guess I do." Kiryu pouted, looking up at the night sky and the smoke that swirled upward into it off of the flames. “Back then, we would’ve killed for this.”

"Mhm," The Signer agreed, happily pouring himself another glass of milk. Kiryu scowled at that, snatching the jug of it away from him. 

"If you keep drinking that, there won’t be any left for me to cook with!" He yelled, and Yusei just smiled and laughed. 

"Who ever knew that our beloved leader could be such a cute wife?"


	40. Chapter 40

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lost without a map.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: arachnophobia, scorpions

"I know exactly where I’m going." 

"You said that an hour ago," Yusei sighed, scraping at the dusty desert road with the toe of his boot. An hour ago, they’d also had more available water and food, and had been closer to Satisfaction Town. There had also been rock formations an hour back that, had they remained there, could have provided some kind of a landmark for any sort of rescue team he tried to contact, and shade from the heat of the day. Kiryu had persisted in moving forward, however, so on they went. 

"Trust me, Yusei! These deserts are my home! I know them like the back of my hand!" Kiryu insisted, spreading his arms out wide as if to embrace the desert that he hadn’t ever been accustomed to, having lived in essentially the slums of a city and then a prison his entire life.

"Kiryu?"

"Yes, dear?" he sang happily, turning his face up toward the sun, basking in it. Maybe he was trying to evaporate the layer of sweat that had built up on his forehead.

"There’s a scorpion on the back of your hand." 

Kiryu swore loudly and yanked the vicious arachnid off of his skin before it stung him, crushing it under the heel of his own boot. That seemed to be the last straw for him, and he yelled and shouted and let it echo off of the parched earth and upwards into the endlessly blue sky.

“ _Fine!_ ” He huffed and pouted, relenting at long last. "Use your damn GPS!" 

Yusei pulled his poncho up over his nose and mouth and smiled to himself in victory, tapping the screen of the Yusei-Go and turning on the system that would lead them to their destination. 

"Next stop," He announced, replacing his helmet which, unfortunately, already stank of sweat, “home.” 


	41. Chapter 41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "kiryu attempting to work as yusei's lab assistant. he's really bad at it but all the other workers are really nice to him because he's yusei's bf"

It became apparent to Kiryu around the fifth time that one of the other lab technicians offered to get him a cup of coffee or to buy him a drink from the vending machine that they were majorly kissing his ass. 

He’d figured, at first, that it was because they were afraid of him. Even though he had, at Yusei’s request, cut his hair and stopped dressing like he belonged in a motorcycle gang, he still had the telltale yellow mark on his face, and the old stigmas rarely, if ever, died. That wasn’t it, though, he quickly realized, once he saw them act much more casually around Yusei, chirping and twittering at his feet like pigeons in a park over crumbs of bread. 

Then, he noticed that his work was being redone. Things that he checked for Yusei, they would go back behind him and check again, making alterations and fixing his notes, straightening up his workspace, and essentially correcting everything, while keeping up the tight-lipped, smiling facade. 

Kiryu felt worse, at that—a mixture of guilt and anger. Anger, of course, that they wouldn’t tell him he was doing wrong to his face. The guilt was for Yusei; was he really holding him and his team of physicists back so much by wanting to be there and helping him?

"I’m useless at it," Kiryu lamented one evening over dinner in the nice apartment he shared with Yusei in the city, that overlooked a private courtyard in which a lemon tree was in full blossom. If it actually bore fruit, he could try that recipe that his friend Luca had sent them for lemon bread. 

"At what?" Yusei asked kindly, reaching across the table to take Kiryu’s empty plate away so that he could rinse them clean. Kiryu grabbed Yusei’s wrist so that he couldn’t walk away, and stared him in the eye, like he used to do, back in the slums. 

"Yusei, am I really that horrible at being your assistant that I need to be babysat by the others? Am I holding you back?" 

With Kiryu looking him in the eye, and holding onto him like that, Yusei’s defenses crumbled right away. He sat back into his seat and sighed.

"You haven’t taken a physics course in your life, so it really can’t be helped. But you’re trying your best, and I like having you there, even if you do need to be corrected sometimes." 

So he admitted it. Kiryu felt the sting from Yusei’s words, and deep down, he wanted to lash out for it, but he couldn’t do that anymore, not so easily. He wasn’t a child. He was in his early thirties now, and he was going to act like the adult that he was, even if he hated it. 

It meant staying close to Yusei’s side, so it was worth the maturity.

"Well, tell them to stop doing it behind my back." Kiryu released Yusei’s wrist and took the plates up himself. "I want to learn, too, and I can’t learn from my mistakes if they go back and fix it in secret. How am I supposed to be your assistant if I don’t learn?" 

Kiryu huffed and stalked off around the other side of the counter, turning on the faucet so that he couldn’t hear Yusei if he had any argument. Yusei did not, however, and only smiled at his lover’s back while he scrubbed off the remnants of the broccoli florets. 

From that day on, every mistake Kiryu made in his work, he learned from, even if he did still scare the hell out of the college-aged assistants routinely.


	42. Chapter 42

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> those days after jack and crow left and trying to hold kiryu together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: blood

"They’ll come back." Kiryu murmurs under his breath in a way that sounds a lot like he’s vowing vengeance, but Yusei keeps his lips tightly sealed. Kiryu is not a supervillain, after all, and he is not the creation of comic book wonders that can be defeated and rewritten with purpose.

"They will come back, won’t they, Yusei?" His voice quivers, a little louder, and Yusei slides his arms around thin shoulders before they begin to quake again, either in misery or in rage. 

"I don’t know, Kiryu." Yusei is honest with him. Kiryu’s grasping hands stretch out the fabric of his shirt and leave little pinched marks in the skin of his back where he is too afraid to let go. 

"I don’t know," he repeats, stroking the silvery hair that’s in need of a wash and is matted from the dried blood from his own miserable wounds, "But I’m not going to leave, so don’t worry about me coming back."

Kiryu’s crushing kiss tastes like salt from his tears, and his shoulders shake anyhow, but Yusei holds fast and tries to keep him from fracturing further than he can repair.


End file.
